
Class __Ei?LS_ 
Book -HB :^ 

COFSUGHT DEPOSm 



Washington as a Center of L. earning 

. , ■ 7 



Washington as a Center 
of Learning 



BY 
CLIFFORD HOWARD 




J O H N S O N -W Y N N E CO 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

1904 



LIBRARY of OONGRESSI 
Two Copies Received f 

NOV 23 1904 

Copynem entry 

cuss CL- XXe. Noi 



Copyright, 1904. 
B. F. Jghnson. 



Washington as a Center 
of Learning 

<Deorge 9^aj6fl)ington'^ ^mfiition 

ON an October afternoon in the year 1 775 a num- 
ber of officers were gathered about General 
Washington in his camp at Cambridge. 
The subject under discussion related to the 
quartering of the militia in some of the college 
buildings, a measure which was causing much 
adverse criticism. General Greene, in particular, 
deplored the necessity for it and at this informal 
meeting with his fellow officers he called attention 
to the damage that had already resulted to certain 
seminary buildings as a consequence of their use 
for this purpose. Samuel Blodgett, the author 
of the first American book on political economy, 
happened to be present, and in answer to General 
Greene's complaint he remarked, "In order to make 
amends for these injuries, I hope that after our war 
we shall erect a noble national university, at which 
the youth of all the world may be proud to receive 
instruction." 

Washington's face lighted up in- 
A prophecy. stantly, and, turning to Blodgett, he 

said with impressive earnestness: 
"Young man, you are a prophet, inspired to speak 
what I am confident will one day be realized." 



Wa^f^inQton a^ a Center of ^learning 

Thus it was, at the very beginning of our struggle 
for liberty — before the formal Declaration of Inde- 
pendence had been issued, — that Washington first 
gave expression to his patriotic and noble idea of a 
national American university. The establishment 
of such an institution at the Capital of the United 
States became one of his most ardent hopes in after 
years, and he never neglected an opportunity to urge 
its importance upon Congress and his fellow-states- 
men. His untiring interest in the project was based 
upon his exalted opinion of the value of education as 
a factor in the upbuilding of the new Republic. In 
his message to Congress on January 8, 1790, he 
wrote : 

"There is nothing which can better deserve your patron- 
age than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge 
is, in every country, the surest basis of happiness. In one 
in which the measures of government receive their impres- 
sions so immediately from the sense of the community as in 
ours it is proportionably essential. To the security of a free 
constitution it contributes in various ways — by convincing 
those who are interested with the pubHc administration that 
every valuable end of government is best answered by the 
enHghtened confidence of the people and by teaching the 
people themselves to know and to value their own rights; 
to discern and provide against invasions of them; to dis- 
tinguish between oppression and the necessary exercise of 
lawful authority, between brethren, proceeding from a disre- 
gard to their convenience, and those resulting from the 
inevitable exigencies of society; to discriminate the spirit of 



oBeorge ^a^ftington'^ Ambition 



liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first and 
avoiding the last; and uniting a speedy but temperate vigi- 
lance against encroachments with an inviolable respect for 
the laws." 

With the prophetic wisdom that is 

Washington's ever one of the distinguishing quali- 
estimate of the (-Jes of the truly great men of the 
education. world, he foresaw and pointed out the 

manifold advantages to be derived 
from the establishment of a center of learning at the 
seat of government. "Not only do the exigencies of 
public and private life demand it," he wrote on one 
occasion, "but if it should ever be apprehended that 
prejudices would be entertained in one part of the 
Union against the other, an efficacious remedy will 
be to assemble the youth of every part under such 
circumstances as will, by freedom of intercourse and 
collision of sentiments, give to their minds the direc- 
tion of truth, philanthropy and mutual conciliation." 
To the last days of his life he looked 
Washington's forward to the time when the Federal 

City, which had been honored with 
his name, should become the recognized center of 
learning in America; and in order that he might leave 
nothing undone, so far as lay within his personal 
power, to bring about the consummation of his cher- 
ished ambition, he provided in his will that a certain 
specified portion of his estate, valued at about 
^25,000, should be set aside "toward the endowment 



^ai0?l)xngton a^ a Center of Steaming 

of a university to be established in the District of 
Columbia under the auspices of the General Govern- 
ment." 

This bequest has never been used, for Congress 
has not yet seen fit to establish specifically such an 
institution as General Washington proposed. But 
while his desire for a national university in the strict 
sense of that term has not been fulfilled, the Capital 
of the United States, nevertheless, has become the 
American center of learning, wherein the Govern- 
ment stands as the foundation of a national temple 
of knowledge, surpassing in its importance and its 
wealth of educational treasure the most sanguine 
expectations of its immortal protagonist. In the 
broad aspect of the question, therefore, his wishes 
have been more than met, and his faith in the devel- 
opment and greatness of the Federal City as an edu- 
cational center is shown clearly to have rested upon a 
foundation of inspired surety. 

The city of Washington, therefore. 
The Capital has requited the honor of its name, 

honol-'^onts "°^ ""^""^ ^y ^^^'°'' °^ ^^^ political 

name. rank it now holds among the Capitals 

of the world, but more especially be- 
cause of its dominating position in the world of learn- 
ing. As in ancient days all roads led to Rome, so, 
today, all roads of learning lead to Washington as the 
embodiment and final expression of those distinctive 

6 



George ^ajBil^ington'^ ^mliition 

qualities of our nation that underlie its strength and 
its achievements. And herein lies the fulfillment of 
its destiny as contemplated by him who gave to our 
National Capital its name and the inspiration of its 
power. 



€^e federal €itp 

THE position thus occupied by the National 
Capital in the realm of education is one 
that must inevitably have been acquired 
sooner or later, and as time goes on is destined to 
grow stronger and to enforce universal recognition 
of its claim. It could not be otherwise. Aside 
from all other considerations, the unique character 
of the city alone makes the result unavoidable. It 
is this fact that inspired in General Washington 
and his wise political associates their confidence in 
the future greatness of the Federal city. 

It stands unique in its history, its 
The only city t • 

of its type. purposes, its government. It is essen- 

tially different from any other city on 
the globe. It is the only Capital among the nations 
of the world devoted exclusively to the business of 
Government. Remove the British Parliament from 
London, and London would still be the world's 
great metropolis. Transfer the seat of the French 
Government, and Paris would continue to be the 
chief city of the Republic. And what is true of 
London and Paris is equally true of Berlin and St. 
Petersburg and Vienna and of all the other European 

9 



Wa^f^inQton a^ a Center of Itearntng 

Capitals. Each is in itself a great city, existing 
independently of the Government. But it is not so 
with the Capital of the United States. Remove the 
seat of Government from Washington, and Wash- 
ington v^ould cease to be. Our National Capital 
exists solely by virtue of the fact that it is the Capital. 
It was to serve this particular and 

Wise foresight exclusive purpose that Washington 

of our fathers. i i tvt i i 

was built. JNot a house was erected 

nor a road cut through until a plan of the city, com- 
plete in all its details of streets, avenues and parks 
and the locations of the various Government depart- 
ments, had been prepared and adopted. With the 
foresight that governed the founders of our Republic 
in all their work they determined that the National 
Capital should be not only an independent seat of 
Government, but that it should be a city which, in its 
plan and in the possibilities of its development, 
should become in time the most beautiful and the 
most attractive of all the cities of the world — a 
Capital worthy of the nation that was to rise upon 
the foundations they had laid. 

To attain this object it was essen- 
National j.j^j ^^^^ ^^le city should be planned 

and founded by the General Govern- 
ment and that the Government should for all time 
exercise exclusive jurisdiction over it, thus avoiding 
the jealousies of rival cities and possible conflicts 

10 



€l^e f etieral Citp 



with State and local authority. Fundamentally, 
therefore, Washington is in every sense of the word 
a "federal" city. The United States Government 
not only owns in fee simple all the streets, roads, parks 
and reservations within the original boundaries of 
the city, but exercises, also, supreme jurisdiction in 
the local affairs of the Capital. The laws for the 
government of the city and the District of Columbia 
are made by Congress and administered by a com- 
mission of three men appointed by the President of 
the United States with the approval of the Senate, 
and Congress likewise appropriates the necessary 
funds for the maintenance of the local government. 
Of these funds, one-half is drawn from the revenues 
of the United States and the other half from the 
tax revenues of the District of Columbia. 

Aside, therefore, from the taxes they pay and which 
are appropriated by Congress for purposes of munici- 
pal government, the citizens of the National Capital 
have no more political voice in the management and 
control of Washington than have the residents of the 
State of California or the Territory of Alaska. In 
fact, it may be argued they have less voice in the 
matter than any other citizens of the United States, 
for they are not only without representation in Con- 
gress, but, being denied the privilege of suffrage, they 
can neither cast a vote for a President of the United 
States nor for any other federal or local official. 

It 



Wa^^inqton a^ a Center of ^learning 

These peculiar features of its politi- 
without ^^^ organization make Washington at 

"politics." once a distinctive and unusual city. 

The agitations and the factional 
wranglings incident to all other American cities are 
unknown. The element of "politics" has no place 
in the social constitution of the National Capital. 
Perhaps because of this and perhaps partly because 
of its situation, Washington presents as a correlative 
feature still another marked contrast to all other large 
cities, in its freedom from the spirit of commercial- 
ism. It has, of course, its industries and its manu- 
factories and its business; but, with few exceptions, 
they are all of local extent and no more than are 
necessary for the needs of the Capital itself. There 
are no mills, no factories, no large mercantile estab- 
lishments for supplying the outside world with manu- 
factured products. Nothing so quickly impresses 
the visitor to Washington as this phase of its unique 
character — the absence of the noise and the hurry and 
the smoky atmosphere that form so common a feature 
of other American cities as a necessary incident of 
commercial life. 

It may well be imagined that by 
A delightful reason of these peculiarities alone 

place of Washington would naturally draw to 

residence. . ^ . . . 

it a distinctive class of residents — 

men and women of leisure and of higher social .and 

12 



€l)e federal Cxtp 



literary tastes, the studious and the lovers of art and 

all who find their best enjoyment in the quiet life. 

And when these peculiarities are viewed in conjunction 

with the physical and architectural grandeur of the 

city and with its political supremacy as the sovereign 

head of the greatest of all nations it is not difficult to 

understand why it should prove the most attractive 

residential city in America and why it should bring 

to a focus within itself the essence of all that is best 

in the life and thought of the American people. 

It stands today, not in theory alone, 

A cosmopoli- j^^^ jj^ reality, as the representative 
tan city. 

center of the United States. Rome 

in the height of its dominion was not more cosmo- 
politan in its population than is the city of Washing- 
ton; for not only does it number among its three 
hundred thousand inhabitants the representatives of 
every Government in the world and of every race of 
mankind, but there is not a State nor a Territory nor 
an island possession of the United States that is not 
represented in Washington's population. Men and 
women of the North and the South, of the East and 
the West and of every city in the Union meet here and 
mingle on common ground. And it is the Govern- 
ment of the United States that either directly or 
indirectly calls them here and makes Washington 
their mutual home. The enormous business of the 
Government departments alone requires the services 



13 



^a^fjington a^ a Center of learning 

of upwards of thirty thousand employees and offi- 
cials, drawn from the various States and Territories 
of the Union, and it is these with their families who 
constitute the nucleus of Washington's population 
and through whom the business and social life of the 
Capital is largely maintained. 

In this close communal intercourse 
Sectional and among the representatives of all sec- 
national tions of the country as well as of for- 
prejudices . . ' r , i 
obliterated. ^'g^ nations we hnd one oi the ele- 
mental factors of Washington's dis- 
tinction as an educational center. Not only does 
this intercourse tend to an intimate knowledge and a 
more sympathetic understanding of the views and 
customs and traditions of our fellow-beings through- 
out the country and the world, but it serves also the 
important purpose which George Washington so 
earnestly desired to attain through the instrumentality 
of a national university — that of obliterating or soften- 
ing the prejudices of one section against another. 

As a class, the Government De- 
Educated partment clerks in Washington repre- 
workers. ^^^^ ^ higher educational and intel- 
lectual average than is to be found among a like body 
of mercantile employees. The reason for this is two- 
fold. In the first place, under the civil service regu- 
lations, all appointees are required to pass a com- 
petitive examination as to their educational fitness, 

14 



€f)c fcticral €itp 



embracing as a foundation the various elementary 
branches of study, and supplemented by such other 
special subjects as may pertain to the particular class 
of work in which the applicants are seeking positions; 
thus securing for the Government service men and 
women of demonstrated ability. In the second place, 
the comparatively short hours devoted to Govern- 
ment business (from nine to half past four) and the 
opportunities offered for the study of law and medi- 
cine and other professions by means of the evening 
classes held by some of the colleges of the city, pre- 
sent advantages which attract a large number of 
students, who are thus enabled to support themselves 
while acquiring a professional education. 

What is true of the clerks in general 
Intellectual , • , • , • , , , r 

culture general/^g^''^^"g ^^^^"^ ^'^^ standard of 
intelligence must necessarily apply 
also, not only to the large corps of scientific specialists 
in the employ of the Government, but likewise to the 
higher officials and the people's representatives in 
Congress. From the President himself down to the 
lowest ranks of official life we find men and women 
of literary and scientific accomplishments occupying 
positions of public trust. Official Washington is 
pervaded with an atmosphere of intellectual culture, 
and in its intimate relationship to the general life of 
the Capital it necessarily influences and gives color 
to its social conditions. 



15 



^a^{)xngton a^ a Center of Seaming 

This is perhaps nowhere more 
scientific clearly shown than in the character of 

organizations, some of Washington's organizations. 
Chief among these are its scientific 
societies — the Anthropological Society, the Arch- 
eological Society, the Biological Society, the Botani- 
cal Society, the Chemical Society, the Entomological 
Society, the National Geographic Society, the 
Geological Society, the Historical Society, the Medi- 
cal Society, the Philosophical Society, and the Society 
of American Foresters, — constituting as a body the 
co-ordinate departments of the Washington Academy 
of Sciences, and embracing a total membership of 
nearly three thousand. Indirectly allied with these 
scientific societies is the Cosmos Club, a unique 
social organization, admitting to membership only 
men of recognized attainments or national distinc- 
tion, and which, as a consequence, contains on its 
register the names of more notable men in science and 
letters than any other club in America. 

Of the various other clubs and 

Washington societies typical of the city's distinc- 

tne great news . -^ ^ . ^ 

center of the tive character none is more promment 

country. than the Gridiron Club, as an organi- 

zation of newspaper correspondents. 
Washington is the chief news center of the country 
and contains, in consequence, more journalists and 
newspaper-writers than could possibly be found in 

16 



€f)e f etieral €itp 



any other one place. No less than two hundred 
daily newspapers are represented at the National 
Capital, many of them maintaining large offices here, 
with a corps of high-paid correspondents and direct 
telegraph wires for their news service. These papers 
include not only the leading representatives of the 
press in every city of this continent, but in England 
and Europe as well; and the journalistic activity 
involved in this characteristic feature of Washington 
is supplemented by an enormous amount of literary 
work, both in connection with the daily press ser- 
vice and also in furnishing material for magazines, 
reviews and other periodicals throughout the world, 
as well as in the writing of books and other more 
serious contributions to literature. 

Washington is the fountainhead 
The Mecca of for information on all subjects of 
iuXr?*' ^""^ National import, and for this reason, 
if no other, is the writers' Mecca of 
the Western Hemisphere. Aside from the large 
number of professional journalists, it abounds with 
men and women engaged in active literary pursuits, 
and this without taking into account the hundreds of 
men in the service of the Government whose duties 
are specifically of a literary character or involve the 
preparation of literary material, as represented in the 
issuance by the Government each year of more than 
two thousand publications, embracing an almost 



17 



^a^f)ington a^ a Center of Jtearning 

limitless range of subjects. It is hardly likely, 
therefore, that any other city contains so large a class 
of literary workers as is to be found in Washington; 
certainly, in no other city does literary work, in the 
broad meaning of the term, enter so extensively into 
the daily activities of the community — a distinction 
that belongs inherently to the Federal city in its 
determinate character as the intellectual center of the 
Nation. 




18 



€f)c <i5obernment a^ a Clnibcr^itp 

BUT whatever may be the value of Wash- 
ington's characteristics — social, physical, 
literary, educational — it must be remem- 
bered that they are largely the result, rather than 
the cause, of the Capital's pre-eminent position as 
a seat of learning; for Washington ow^es not only 
its existence, but its character as well, to the fact 
that it is the abiding place of the United States 
Government. 

It is because it is the Capital that Washington is as 
beautiful and magnificent as it is; and it is because of 
the location of the seat of Government here that its 
people and its institutions are what they are. The 
Government has created and permeates all phases of 
Washington life; and it is the Government, primarily 
and directly, that gives to the National Capital its 
supremacy in the world of science and letters. 

It goes without saying that any Capital must offer 
to the people of its commonwealth special advantages 
in the study of civics and governmental administra- 
tion, for it is there that the machinery of the Govern- 
ment in all its branches and details may be seen in 

19 



^a^l^ington a^ a Center of learning 

actual operation; and in a Government of such vast 
proportions as that of the United States, the National 
Capital stands for the American people as a school of 
unrivaled value for the practical study of our con- 
stitutional principles and the administration of the 
laws and political affairs of the country. 

But v^hile this alone would give to 
Government Washington a specialized educational 
the people. value, it should be borne in mind that 

our National Government is not only 
the supreme embodiment and expression of the 
political will of the people, but of all that enters into 
the life of the nation. The Government is not some- 
thing apart from the people. In a Republic like ours 
it is the People. The Government at Washington, 
therefore, stands as the concrete representation, the 
essential embodiment, of our national life and thought 
in all of its multitudinous phases. It is the manifest 
expression of the people's judgment and of their 
achievements as a nation in the domains of science 
and letters, of discovery and invention, of philosophy 
and art and industry, and, in short, of all that per- 
tains to the welfare and progress of society. 

Washington is the library, the 

All branches store-house, and at the same time the 
of knowledge j- i • r i • ' 

represented? distnbutmg center, ot the nation s 

knowledge and accomplishments. 
There is no science, no branch of learning, no vital 

20 



€&e <0obernmcnt a^ a 23niber^itp 

feature of national life that is not embodied in the 

Government at Washington. Libraries, scientific 

bureaus, experiment stations, laboratories, museums, 

observatories, all form an essential and important 

part of the Government's equipment. 

It is these particular features of the 

A great body National Capital that constitute 
of specialists __, , . , , . - , • i i • 

Washmgton s chier and special claim 

to recognition as a center of learning, for it is these 
technical departments of the Government that give 
to Washington its unparalleled working force of 
scientists and educators. The great majority of 
them are eminent specialists; all of them are men 
of superior training and ability, and together they 
form an aggregation of scientific workers and author- 
ities, numbering more than two thousand in all, such 
as could not possibly be found anywhere else. When 
John Tyndall, the famous English physicist, was 
visiting Washington several years ago he remarked 
that he knew of no city in Europe that could gather 
together so large a body of scientists and original 
investigators as that which he met here. 

There is scarcely one of them 
The home of whose name is not well known in the 

distinguished realm of science or education, while 
scientists 

many of them enjoy popular and in- 
ternational fame as the leading exponents of their 
respective professions. It is not difficult to under- 

2X 



Wa^f^inQton a^ a Center of learning 

stand, therefore, why Washington should hold the 
rank it does in the sphere of learning. To name but a 
few, chosen at random from the various departments 
of science, cannot but prove significant of the influ- 
ence that the presence of such men must have upon 
the intellectual life of the Capital, for included in the 
long list are such men as Simon Newcomb, one of the 
world's greatest living astronomers; S. P. Langley, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and a 
leader and authority in astronomical physics; Dr. 
Theodore Gill, an authority on biology, and Dr. 
John S. Billings, on medical hygiene; Carroll D. 
Wright, on statistics; Dr. William T. Harris, on 
education; Prof. W. H. Holmes, on ethnology; 
Cleveland Abbe, on meteorology; GifFord Pinchot, 
on forestry; Lester F. Ward, on sociology; Charles 
V. Riley, on entomology; Ainsworth R. Spofford, on 
literature; Alexander Graham Bell, on physics; and 
Otis T. Mason, on anthropology. These are but a 
representative handful of a numerous galaxy, each 
an authority and each having to his credit the accom- 
plishment of work that has added materially to the 
sum total of human knowledge. 

With the services of these men — these scholars 
and investigators— at its command, and with its 
unequaled equipment for the acquisition of knowl- 

22 



€|)e <0obernment a^^ a dniber^itp 

edge, the Government of the United 

The city a States at Washington is in itself a 

orreat univer- • • .... 

°.^ university — a university, it is true, 

that confers no degrees and is with- 
out a curriculum or classified students or faculty, but 
nevertheless a university in the comprehensive and 
generic meaning of the term; an institution, as defined 
on one occasion by Dr. Gould, the astronomer, where 
all the sciences in the complete and rounded extent of 
their complex whole are cultivated; where every 
specialty may find its votaries and may offer all the 
facilities required by its neophytes; and where the 
object is not so much to make scholars as to develop 
scholarship; not so much to teach the passive learner 
as to educate investigators, and not merely to edu- 
cate, but to spur on. Such are the facilities offered 
by the United States Government to students and 
investigators of America; facilities and opportunities 
such as can be found in no institution of learning in 
any part of the world. 

The scientific investigations of the 
Enormous Government are conducted on a 

outlay for scale, involving an annual expendi- 

scientmc . . 

investigation. ture of something like eight millions 

of dollars, that cannot in any way be 

approached by the most wealthy university, and 

23 



^a^fjtngton a^ a Center of ^learning 

represent a total investment of upwards of fifty mil- 
lions for the establishment and development of 
libraries, laboratories, museums and collections. 
Compared with these enormous resources the wealth 
of Harvard or Yale or Chicago or any other univer- 
sity in this country or abroad sinks into mediocrity. 

While Congress has not yet deemed 

Important [^ expedient to establish an organized 

resolution by . . , , , . • r i 

Congress. mstitution under the direction oi the 

National Government for the sys- 
tematic public use of its wonderful educative facili- 
ties, it is, nevertheless, not unmindful of the fact that 
they belong to the people and are designed for the 
ultimate benefit of the Nation and the diffusion of 
knowledge among men. In token of this. Congress 
passed the following resolution in 1892 specifically 
placing the literary and scientific collections of the 
Government at the disposal of students: 

"Whereas, large collections illustrative of the various arts 
and sciences and facilitating literary and scientific research 
have been accumulated by the action of Congress through a 
series of years at the national capital; and 

"Whereas it was the original purpose of the Government 
thereby to promote research and the diffusion of knowledge, 
and is now the settled policy and present practice of those 
charged with the care of these collections specially to en- 
courage students who devote their time to the investigation 
and study of any branch of knowledge by allowing to them 
all proper use thereof; and 

24 



"Whereas it is represented that the enumeration of these 
facilities and the formal statement of this policy will encour- 
age the establishment and endowment of institutions of 
learning at the seat of Government, and promote the work 
of education by attracting students to avail themselves of the 
advantages aforesaid under the direction of competent in- 
structors; Therefore, 

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, 
That the facilities for research and illustration in the follow- 
ing and any other Governmental collections now existing 
or hereafter to be established in the city of Washington for 
the promotion of knowledge shall be accessible, under such 
rules and restrictions as the officers in charge of each col- 
lection may prescribe, subject to such authority as is now or 
may hereafter be permitted by law, to the scientific investi- 
gators and to students of any institution of higher education 
now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated under the 
laws of Congress or of the District of Columbia, to wit: 

One. Of the Library of Congress. 

Two. Of the National Museum. 

Three. Of the Patent Office. 

Four. Of the Bureau of Education. 

Five. Of the Bureau of Ethnology. 

Six. Of the Army Medical Museum. 

Seven. Of the Department of Agriculture. 

Eight. Of the Fish Commission. 

Nine. Of the Botanic Gardens. 

Ten. Of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

Eleven. Of the Geological Survey. 

Twelve. Of the Naval Observatory." 

25 



\ 



^a^()ington a^ a Center of Itearning 

It is obvious without further dis- 

Unequaled cussion that the advantages thus 

educational rr i i • tit i • 

facilities orrered to students in Washington 

cannot be equaled elsewhere in Am- 
erica. There is scarcely a branch of human activ- 
ity that is not in some degree recognized by the 
National Government. In the archives of the State 
and other Departments are to be found the exten- 
sive accumulations of original historical documents 
and data which are invaluable to students of history, 
political science, economics, sociology and allied 
topics of research; while the great Library of Con- 
gress, the Public Library of the District of Colum- 
bia and the many highly specialized libraries 
attached to the various departments of the Govern- 
ment are in themselves exhaustless sources of knowl- 
edge. The Librarian of Congress, speaking on this 
subject, says: 

" There are thus in the city of Wash- 
The Govern- ington thirty-four governmental libraries 
ment libraries, freely available for research. These libra- 
ries now contain in the aggregate over two 
million books and pamphlets and over a half million other 
articles literary in character — manuscripts, maps, music, and 
prints. If we add to them the contents of the District 
Library and of the libraries of private associations and insti- 
tutions * * * ^e shall have a total not merely greater 
than is to be found in any other city of this size in the world, 
but one which in proportion to population represents several 

26 



€lje <Ootiernment a^ a Uni\itt^itp 

times as many volumes per capita as exist for public use in 
any other city of the world. 

******* 

" Today the Library of Congress is a collection, including 
duplicates, of over 1,100,000 books and pamphlets and half 
a million other articles. It is housed in a building devoted 
to its sole use — the largest library building in the world, the 
most commodious, the most efficient in equipment for the 
work which it has to do ; a building which provides for 
ample classification and display of the material, for reasonable 
growth, and for a multitude and great variety of service ; a 
building which may accommodate a thousand readers at a 
time and differentiate them to their best advantage." 

And besides these great literary compilations there 
are the technical, industrial and scientific collections 
of the National Museum, the Museum of Naval 
Hygiene, the Smithsonian Institution, the Army 
Medical Museum and the various departmental 
museums, containing extensive series of specimens 
of great value to the student of anthropology, orni- 
thology, archeology, mineralogy, geology, paleon- 
tology, biology in all its branches, or any one of a 
multitude of technical subjects, while in the Patent 
Office are the models and records of the thousands of 
inventions that have contributed so materially during 
our national existence to modify the conditions 
under which we live and to give to America its 
exalted rank in the industrial and mechanical 
progress of the race. 

27 



^a^J)xngton a^ a Center of Eearning 

In the experimental sciences the most 

Work in the notable advantages are to be found, 

^^i^^^^^ since it is in Washington that the 

sciences. ^ ^ ^ 

various scientific establishments of the 
Government are centered: — the Weather Bureau, 
v^ith its appliances for the study of national problems 
in meteorology; the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 
from v^hich the surveys of our territory are carried on 
and by w^hich the figure of the earth and terrestrial 
magnetism are experimentally determined; the 
Hydrographic Bureau, which conducts the surveys 
of foreign coasts and the study of the oceans; the 
Bureau of Standards, which standardizes the instru- 
ments used in measuring mass, volume, heat, light, 
electricity, and all other magnitudes; the Geological 
Survey, which investigates the structure of the earth, 
ascertains our mineral resources, and supervises the 
sources of supply and means for distribution and 
control of water for irrigation purposes; the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, which exists primarily for 
conducting original investigations for the benefit 
of agriculture in all its branches, and is therefore 
provided with extensively equipped laboratories for 
the study of chemistry, botany, vegetable physiology, 
entomology, bio-chemistry, bacteriology, comparative 
pathology, parasitology, the physics and chemistry 
of the soil, forestry, and microscopy; the Naval 
Observatory and Nautical Almanac Office, where 

28 



€j)e (Dobernment a^ a <aniber^itp 

researches in astronomy and navigation are con- 
ducted; the Marine Hospital Service, w^hich deals 
with national problems in hygiene; the Bureaus of 
Construction and of Steam Engineering of the Navy, 
having supervision over the designs and construction 
of our ships; the Bureau of Yards and Docks, which 
supervises the engineering operations at our navy 
yards and naval stations; the Bureau of Equipment, 
which is charged with the electrical installations for 
the Navy; the U. S. Signal Corps, which has super- 
vision over the electrical installations for the Army; 
the Engineer Corps of the Army, which is charged 
with river and harbor improvements, and the Light- 
House Board, which controls the system for lighting 
our navigable waters. 

Of chemical laboratories for conducting the tests 
of materials, and especially for research work, there 
are now eighteen attached to the different depart- 
ments at Washington. In the graphic arts there is 
especial activity, as map-making and chart-work are 
carried on in almost every bureau, while the Super- 
vising Architect's Office of the Treasury Department 
is the largest office of its kind in the country. To 
the student of pedagogy the Bureau of Education 
offers unexampled resources in its extensive library, 
its valuable publications, and its large and varied 
collection of material relating to the history, the 
methods, and statistics of education. 



29 



^a^l)ington a^ a Center of ^learning 

The opportunities for special or ad- 
Advantages m vanced work in Mechanical Engineer- 
mechanical . ^ r • i i 

engineering. ^^ig ^^e also of exceptional character. 

The great departments of the Govern- 
ment charged w^ith designing are all located here. 
In the Navy Bureaus of Ordnance, of Steam Engi- 
neering and of Construction and Repair there is 
projected and detailed more heavy constructional 
w^ork than probably in any part of the country. 
Here also is located the Naval Gun Factory, vs^hich 
is freely open to visits of inspection, while the 
Ordnance Proving Station is located but a few 
miles down the Potomac. Washington is also the 
headquarters for military engineering, as the War 
Department has charge of all river and harbor 
improvements for the country, and here are located 
the headquarters of the Engineer School of Applica- 
tion for the Army. 

To students of Medicine and of 

Opportunities Dentistry there are unsurpassed facili- 

for students . r j j i t-i a 

of medicine ^^^^ study and research. 1 he Army 

and dentistry. Medical Museum, which is open for 

inspection daily, presents a field for 

study superior to any other institution of the kind, 

either in this country or in Europe. Its library of 

medical books and periodicals is the best in the world, 

and under its auspices is published the well-known 

Index Medicus. It has an unrivalled collection of 

30 



V, 



y 



€f)c oBobernment a^ a aniber^itp 

anatomical and pathological specimens, illustrating 
normal anatomy and the results of disease in every 
form, and a well-nigh unlimited number of other 
exhibits showing the effect of gunshot wounds and 
surgical injuries of every kind. It also contains 
almost numberless crania of every human nation- 
ality, by an examination of which the student can 
find many dentures of theoretical perfection, and 
observe the effect of civilization and race admixture 
upon the dental organs. At the United States Patent 
Office are models of every conceivable form of dental 
instruments. In the National Museum is found the 
most complete and best arranged collection of Materia 
Medica in the world. The drugs are shown in all 
their processes of manufacture, from the original 
package to the delicate alkaloid constituting the 
active principle. And in the Museum of Hygiene are 
contained specimens and illustrations of all that per- 
tains to sanitary science and its development. 

In the laboratories of the Department 

Laboratory ^f Agriculture and of the Marine Hos- 
facilities. . 

pital and Public Health Service there 

are superior facilities for all kinds of bacteriological 

and chemical investigations, and for the study 

of bio-chemistry, comparative pathology and pari- 

sitology; while the laboratories and hospitals of the 

Army and Navy also offer many opportunities for 

instruction. 

31 



\ 



^a^l^ington a^ a Center of learning 

"To students of Law, Jurispru- 

Special advan- dence and Diplomacy, the peculiar 

tasr6S to stu- i ^ i 

dents of law advantages of Washington are mani- 

and diplomacy, fest. The Supreme Court is in session 
from October to May, and on each 
Monday morning delivers opinions orally. Students 
may listen to these and thus keep in touch with the 
latest utterances of the greatest court. The State 
Department, with its large library, affords facilities 
for the study of diplomacy. Congress is in session 
during the winter, and here the student sees the prac- 
tical workings of the largest and most important 
legislative body, and listens to the discussion of 
matters touching interstate and foreign commerce 
and diplomatic relations."* 

But the educational advantages of 

Education the Government's collections, both 

for all. r J ,. 

scientihc and literary, are not con- 
fined alone to students. Whatever in its nature is of 
popular interest is made readily accessible to the 
public. The Library of Congress, the Botanical and 
Zoological Gardens, the museums and the various 
scientific exhibits are not only open at all times to 
visitors of every class and condition, but special pains 
are taken to so present the collections and the meth- 
ods of investigation as to render them both enter- 



* " Columbian [George Washington] University Bulletin," 
March, 1904. 

32 



€l)e oBotiernment a^ a aniber^itp 

taining and instructive to the general public. This 
desire to return to the people in interesting, concrete 
form the results of the Nation's acquirements is 
carried to the extent of labeling the trees with their 
names in some of the parks which have been set out 
with large numbers of representative specimens and 
unusual varieties; while the National Zoological Park, 
occupying a magnificently picturesque site of nearly 
two hundred acres, and containing more than a 
thousand different kinds of animals, is not only free 
to all who care to enter, but is made especially at- 
tractive by providing accommodations for picnic 
parties and encouraging its use as a playground for 
children. 

Nor are the results of the Govern- 
Immense ment's scientific work confined solely 

number of ^^ collections and exhibits. What- 

Government . t i i • i i 

publications. ^^er is accomplished or acquired by 

the Government is recorded in print, 
and issued in the form of bulletins, reports, mono- 
graphs, documents and other publications. The 
United States Government is, in fact, the greatest 
publishing institution in existence. It issues each 
year more than fifteen hundred separate and distinct 
publications, and maintains the largest and most 
complete printing office in the world, at an annual 
cost of over six millions of dollars. Nearly all of its 
vast array of publications are of a periodical charac- 

33 



Wa^f^inqton ajef a Center of learning 

ter — dailies, weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, and 
annuals, — ranging from the daily "Consular Re- 
ports," "Weather Bulletins," "Congressional Rec- 
ord," &c., to the annual reports and year books of 
the various Departments, and involving in all a total 
of something over twenty-one million copies a year. 
While many of these publications 
Free distribu- relate wholly to the administration of 

tion of ^Yie executive departments, the very 

documents. . , , . ,, 

great majority or them are designedly 

of an educative character and embody the results of 
the work of the various scientific and technical 
branches of the Government. They are intended for 
distribution to the libraries throughout the country 
and to such persons as may be interested in their 
respective subjects. This is done without cost to 
the recipients, for the aim of the Government is not 
to secure revenue from its publications, but to dissem- 
inate knowledge in this manner as freely as possible 
among the American people. To this end every 
Senator and Representative is given a certain quan- 
tity of each issue of every bulletin, document, &c., 
for distribution among his constituents, thus ensuring 
their widest possible circulation. Those who cannot 
obtain them in this manner may secure them from 
the Superintendent of Public Documents, a Govern- 
ment official whose especial business it is to collect 
and catalogue all of the public publications and pro- 

34 



€l^e <Dobernment a^ a aniber^itp 

vide for their sale. The price-list issued by his office 
contains nearly four thousand titles, representing a 
library of universal information — and information of 
the highest authority and unquestionable accuracy. 
The prices at which they are sold, covering merely 
the actual cost of printing and binding, place them 
w^ithin easy reach of students, investigators and all 
other interested persons throughout the country. 

To realize the Government's liber- 
Illustration ality in this matter it is only necessary 
Golemmenf s ^° examine, for instance, a copy of 
liberality. the "Year Book" of the Department 
of Agriculture. This is a quarto vol- 
ume, bound substantially in cloth, and containing 
over seven hundred pages of text and more than fifty 
full-page plate illustrations, many of them in natural 
colors, besides a large number of textual illustrations, 
and embracing seventy-five different subjects of pop- 
ular interest to farmers and gardeners and the pub- 
lic generally. Of this instructive and valuable book 
the Government distributes absolutely free nearly 
five hundred thousand copies — a book that requires, 
in its printing and binding, the exclusive services of 
nearly thirteen hundred employees of the Govern- 
ment Printing Office, and the publication of which 
costs the Government a total of more than three hun- 
dred thousand dollars, — and for such copies as can- 
not be obtained through the channels of free distri- 

35 



Wa^f^in^tm a^ a Center of Htearning 

bution the charge is but seventy-five cents, a price 
four and five times belov^^ that w^hich a w^ork of this 
character v^ould command in the ordinary book 
market. 

A fair idea of the range and of the value of the sub- 
jects treated in this one publication may be gleaned 
by the follov^ing titles selected at random from the 
issue for the fiscal year 1903: "Farmers' Institutes," 
"The Cultivation of Corn," "The Economic Value 
of the Bob White," "Preparing Land for Irrigation," 
"The Adulteration of Drugs," "Building Sand-Clay 
Roads in Southern States," "The Relation of Forest 
to Stream Flow," "Determination of the Effect of 
Preservatives in Foods on Health and Digestion," 
"Use of Weather Bureau Records in Court," "Some 
nevs^ Facts about the Migration of Birds," "The 
Principal Injurious Insects of 1903." And the 
"Year Book" is but one of three hundred publica- 
tions issued annually by the Department of Agricul- 
ture alone. 

Facts such as these cannot but 

'^^6 prove impressive as testifying to the 

Smithsonian , . r 1 j 

Institution. extent and importance ot the educa- 
tive work carried on by the Govern- 
ment through its various scientific departments. Of 
these the Smithsonian Institution is pre-eminently 
the chief. Under the terms of the bequest of its 
founder, James Smithson, of England, it is devoted 

36 



solely to the increase and diffusion of knowledge 
among men; and to this end Congress annually 
appropriates five hundred thousand dollars for its 
maintenance, in addition to the endowment income 
of sixty thousand dollars. Allied with it are the 
National Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnol- 
ogy, the Astro-Physical Laboratory, and the National 
Zoological Park; and with these as subordinate de- 
partments the Smithsonian Institution is the head 
and controlling spirit of scientific work in America, 
and is distinguished from all other Federal institu- 
tions in that it stands completely apart from politics 
and the administrative affairs of the Government. 

The objects of the Institution are, 

A wide range gj.^^ ^^ increase knowledge by origi- 
of subiects. & y o 

nal investigations and study both in 

science and literature; and, second, to diffuse knowl- 
edge by promoting an interchange of thought among 
those prominent in learning in all nations. The 
leading features of its administration, as defined by 
the Institution, are to assist men of science in making 
original researches; to publish the results of their 
work in a series of volumes, and to give a copy of 
them to every first-class library on the face of the 
earth. There are not many scientific investigators 
in the United States to whom help has not at some 
time been extended. Books, apparatus, and labora- 
tory accommodations have been supplied to thou- 

37 



W^^lyinQton a^ a Center of learning 

sands, and each year a certain number of money 
grants are made to persons engaged in original re- 
search, while thousands of letters of information are 
written each year in response to inquiries, and dupli- 
cate specimens furnished from the museum collec- 
tion — the number already distributed amounting to 
nearly a million. 

Not the least important part of its 
The National , ^ j , jrr • r i 

Museum work toward the dirtusion or know- 

ledge lies in the pubic exhibit of its 
collections as contained in the National Museum. At 
present these include nearly six million specimens, 
representative of every branch of human knowledge, 
industry and art. Their intrinsic value cannot be 
expressed in figures; for not only are there many 
single specimens worth thousands of dollars and 
some that could not be obtained for a fortune, but 
there are, besides, many series of specimens that owe 
their value to their completeness and to the labor that 
has been expended upon them and could not be 
replaced at any price. 

Besides these general and popular 
Scientific pub- methods of disseminating knowledge 

lications of the ^^^ Smithsonian Institution issues 

Smithsonian 

Institution. nine different yearly publications, 

aggregating by this time nearly three 

hundred volumes, with a total of over two million 

copies and parts, which have been gratuitously dis- 

38 



€f)c <iBobernment a^ a Unihtt^itp 

tributed to institutions and private individuals; these 
v^orks in themselves forming a scientific library in all 
its branches. The "Annual Report" alone is a 
quarto volume of nearly eight hundred pages, beauti- 
fully illustrated and containing, in addition to reports 
bearing upon the various departments of the Institu- 
tion's work, articles and treatises of a more or less 
popular character by the most eminent scientific 
authorities in the world. Such subjects as "Wireless 
Telegraphy," by Marconi, "Color Photography," 
by Sir William Herschel, "Ether and Gravitational 
Matter through Infinite Space," by Lord Kelvin, 
"The Laws of Nature" by Langley, "The National 
Zoo at Washington" by Seaton Thompson, and 
"Automobile Races" by Henri Fournier, included in 
the contents of the report for the fiscal year 1901, will 
serve to indicate the interesting and authoritative 
nature of this particular publication. 

In exchange for its publications, 

A rare ^^d by purchase, the Institution has 

scientific 

library amassed a wonderful collection of 

books, numbering over half a million 
copies, which forms one of the richest scientific 
libraries in existence; for in it are contained the publi- 
cations of all the learned societies in the world, thus 
constituting a record of the actual progress in all that 
pertains to the mental and physical development of 
the human family and affording a means of tracing 

39 



Wa^f^irxQton a^ a Center of ^learning 

the history of every branch of positive science since 

the days of the revival of letters to the present time. 

From the practice of exchanging its 

International publications with other institutions has 

exchange of arisen a system of international ex- 
publications. , , 1 1 1 O • 1 

change conducted by the ISmitnsoman 

Institution through a special bureau. 
This Bureau of Exchanges has established corres- 
pondence w^ith learned men and societies all over 
the w^orld, until there is today no civilized country or 
people, however remote — from Greenland to Zanzibar, 
— where the institution ;s not thus represented. The 
number of these correspondents now amounts to 
about forty-four thousand, of whom fully thirty-five 
thousand are in foreign lands, and through interna- 
tional treaty all exchanges of scientific publications 
or material between scientists of America and these 
representatives abroad are made free of charge. Any 
scientific society or person in the United States desir- 
ing to send a contribution or specimen of any kind to 
some foreign country may do so without cost by 
forwarding it to the Smithsonian Institution at 
Washington. The enormous amount of material 
thus handled by the Institution, both coming into 
and going out of the country, is shown by the fact 
that the total weight of the books passing through 
the Bureau of Exchanges in one year amounts to over 
228 tons. 

40 



€()e <6obci:nment a^ a anibcr«^itp 

While all of the other scientific 

The Depart- establishments at Washington are of 
ment of . . . , , 

Agriculture. the utmost mtrmsic value, they are 

largely specialized and are devoted 
primarily to Government work and purposes. In 
the case of the Department of Agriculture, however, 
it may be said that it stands in the same relation to 
practical, domestic science as does the Smithsonian 
Institution to the higher branches of knowledge in 
general. In fact, this department is intentionally an 
educative institution. Its object is to give practical 
aid and advice to the people of the country in all 
matters pertaining not only to agriculture, but to life 
conditions generally. The act of Congress creating 
it, which was signed by President Lincoln in 1862, 
states that the general purpose of the department shall 
be to acquire and diffuse among the people of the 
United States useful information on the subjects con- 
nected with agriculture in the most general and com- 
prehensive sense of that word. 

For the carrying on of the work of this important 
establishment Congress appropriates annually nearly 
six million dollars, and employs the services of about 
four thousand men and women, more than two thou- 
sand of whom are men connected with the scientific 
and technical work of the department, either at 
Washington or at the experimental and Weather 
Bureau stations maintained by the Department 

41 



^a^ljington a^ a Center of learning 

throughout the country. From the forecasting of the 
weather to the distribution of seeds the Department 
embraces in its various bureaus every phase of work 
associated with the agricuhural interests of the 
country that can be of any use or benefit to the 
American farmer. 

Its chief educational work lies in the 
Six million publication and distribution of technical 
■R n^^^'^" ^"^ popular information. It publishes 
a year. in one year sometimes as many as seven 

hundred different bulletins, reports, &c., 
including reprints. Over ten and a half million 
copies . in all are printed every year, and of this 
number more than, six million are "Farmers' Bul- 
letins." -i These bulletins , are pamphlets, ranging 
from a dozen to fifty pages or more, each, and devoted 
to subjects of special interest to farmers and garden- 
ers, such as "Feeding Farm Animals," "Weeds and 
how to kill them," "Facts about Milk," "Sewage 
Disposal on the Farm," " How to grow Mushrooms," 
"Practical Suggestions for Farm Buildings," "Insect 
Enemies of Growing Wheat," "Horse Shoeing," 
"Weeds used in Medicine," and scores of others of 
a like general character; all of them instructive and 
of authoritative value, and representing the results 
of careful scientific investigation under the auspices 
of the United States Government. 

42 



€|)e <6obeniment a0 a Clniber^itp 

The corps of scientists associ- 

A comprehensive ^^^^ ^j^h the Department includes 

department of / 

learning. some oi the world s most able men 

in their field of work; while the 
Department library of seventy-five thousand 
volumes is undoubtedly the best in the world 
devoted to agriculture and allied subjects; so that 
the Government has here, in this one branch of 
its service, a department of learning that is not 
only of immense practical value, but which, in its 
scope and in its material and facilities, is of a mag- 
nitude and importance comparable with no other 
institution of its kind. It is maintained primarily 
for the benefit of the people, and the wide scope of 
its educational and utilitarian purposes is further 
shown by the interest and assistance it lends to the 
building of good roads, to the teaching of domestic 
science, to the establishment of school gardens, to 
the prevention of forest destruction, to the better- 
ment of general school conditions by calling the 
attention of the agricultural people to the funda- 
tmental necessity of securing the general improve- 
ment of rural schools, and to the development of the 
various Farmers' Institutes throughout the country, 
which are designed for the education of the adult 
farmer and are now held annually in forty-three 
States and attended by more than eight hundred 
thousand farmers. 

43 



9^a^f)ington a^ a Center of Itearning 

Besides the assistance given in 
A wide range , , . , , t^ 

of teachingT these directions by the Department 

itself, a number of its officers are 
engaged in teaching, outside of official hours, in the 
educational institutions of Washington and of various 
other cities; nine being thus employed in the schools 
and universities in the District of Columbia, five at 
Yale, four at the University of Pennsylvania, two at 
Johns Hopkins, and one at Harvard and at a score of 
other universities throughout the United States. 
Lectures are also given to the public-school teachers 
of Washington by officers of the Bureau of Plant 
Industry, the Division of Biological Survey, and the 
Office of Experiment Stations, and the teachers are 
further assisted in school gardening and in studies of 
plants and animals of different regions through field 
parties led by officers of the Department. 

That the Government in the scien- 
universitv ^^^^ ^"^ technical branches of its 

equipment constitutes in itself a great 
w^orking university with well-nigh limitless facilities, 
is a fact that must so quickly become obvious to the 
most superficial observer, as to render unnecessary any 
further recital of details or statistics. It only remains 
to call attention for a moment to its libraries — the great 
store-houses of the Nation's recorded knowledge. 

The surpassing magnitude of the Library of Con- 
gress has already been alluded to. Aside from the 

44 



€f)e aBobernment a^ a aniber^xtp, 

intrinsic value of such an enor- 

Facilities for the ^^^^^ collection of books, this 

student at the 

Library of Congress, library is becoming more and 

more the great national dispenser 
of information in the domain of literature. Its pur- 
pose is not merely to collect books and place them 
at the disposal of the people, but more particularly to 
classify them, to digest them, to make known their 
contents, to direct the student or the investigator to 
the sources of his desired information, and thus make 
of the library a living, potent force in the world of 
learning. To this end every facility is accorded the 
student. He may draw as many books as he wishes 
— a dozen or a hundred at a time, — and if his re- 
searches are to occupy several days or weeks he is 
given a separate room and afforded every accommo- 
dation at the disposal of the library. Besides the 
books which anyone may obtain by calling for them 
on the prescribed order slip, there is a special refer- 
ence collection of twenty thousand volumes in the 
reading room to which any reader is given access 
without formality, while the twenty-seven hundred 
current newspapers and magazines in the "peri- 
odical" room are likewise accessible at all times. 
Although nearly three thousand persons visit the 
library every day of the year, its usefulness is 
not confined alone to those who are able to con- 
sult its books in person, for the library officials are 

45 



^a^tjington ajef a Center of Slearning 

daily kept busy replying to the inquiries received 
from all parts of the country asking for informa- 
tion on topics of the day, on bibliography and on 
subjects pertaining to literature in general. 

When it is remembered that this 

An enormous wonderful library is less than a hun- 
collection , , i j , • i , 

of books. area years old; that it already con- 

tains a hundred thousand volumes 
beyond a million, besides one hundred thousand 
manuscripts and four hundred thousand musical 
compositions, to say nothing of two hundred thou- 
sand maps and prints, and that during the past few 
years it has been adding to its collection at a rate of 
something like eighty thousand volumes a year, it 
needs no argument to demonstrate its superlative 
position among the greatest libraries of the world. 

Grouped about it, as the great 

Department central literary collection of the na- 

libranes. . i • i -i • r 

tion, are the mdependent libraries of 

the various Government Departments, containing in 
the aggregate nearly a million more volumes to be 
added to the literary resources of the Capital. This 
supplementary collection of scientific and technical 
works is remarkable alone as being the greatest col- 
lection of its kind, but what gives to it its chief and 
distinctive value is its classification into specialized 
subjects. Each department or branch of the Gov- 
ernment has its individual library, made up of books 

46 



€l)e <6obcrnment a^ a Clniber^itp 

relating particularly to the work of the department. 
Thus the Medical Museum, representing the office 
of the Surgeon-General of the Army, has a library 
numbering nearly a hundred and fifty thousand vol- 
umes devoted exclusively to medicine and hygiene; 
universally conceded to be the best and most com- 
plete medical library in the world. The library of 
the Bureau of Education, containing over eighty 
thousand volumes, has no equal on subjects of peda- 
gogy and of education in general. The library of the 
Patent Office, with its seventy-five thousand volumes, 
is pre-eminently rich in books on applied science. 
The National Museum has an unexcelled collection 
of twenty-five thousand volumes bearing upon 
archeology and kindred subjects. The library of 
the Department of Commerce and Labor is unique 
in its large collection of works on statistics and 
economics; that of the Geological Survey on geology, 
explorations and mineralogy; that of the Naval 
Observatory on mathematics and astronomy; that of 
the Ordnance Department of the Army on artillery, 
firearms, explosives, etc.; that of the Bureau of Eth- 
nology on the North American Indian and prehis- 
toric races — and so on throughout the list, thus giving 
to every subject of science, industry and art its 
special library. 

The value of these libraries cannot be over esti- 
mated. Some of them are of priceless worth, as, for 

47 



^a^Jington a^ a Center of Steaming 

example, that of the State Depart- 
Invaluable . t ^u ru j ^u 

documents ment. Inthis library are preserved the 

laws and treaties of the United States, 
the Declaration of Independence, the documentary 
history of the Revolution (the gathering together of 
vv^hich cost over a quarter of a million of dollars), the 
journals of the Federal Constitutional Convention, 
the secret journals of Congress, the letters, papers 
and boyhood diary of George Washington (obtained 
at a cost of forty-five thousand dollars), the papers 
of Franklin, of Jefferson and of a score of other 
famous Americans; complete files of newspapers, 
journals and reviews published both in this country 
and abroad; and a remarkable collection of docu- 
ments relating to foreign affairs, secret court histories, 
and international episodes; besides which the library 
is particularly rich in historical and biographical 
works, works relating to the laws of nations and 
diplomatic usages, and digests of civil, common and 
municipal laws in this and foreign countries. 

If the Government owned but this one library, 
containing in all about sixty-three thousand vol- 
umes, it would give prominence to Washington as 
the abiding place of one of the most valuable collec- 
tions of books and documents in the country. Each 
year it brings to the Capital from all parts of the 
United States scores of authors and students who 
desire to avail themselves of its complete and exclu- 

48 



€j)e oBobemment a^ a aniber^efitp 

sive records; and in accordance with the general 
policy of the Government every facility is offered for 
these studies; desk-room and all the resources of the 
library being thrown open to students. 

When, therefore, we consider the value of this 
library together with that of all the other Department 
libraries of the Government, with their grand total of 
a million books, and then realize that they are but 
the specialized adjuncts of a great central library, 
larger and more comprehensive than all of these com- 
bined, it seems useless to seek for further evidence of 
the sovereignty of Washington as a center of learning. 




49 



(iBtiucationai g^n^titution^, 

THAT Washington should prove peculiarly 
attractive as a location for the establishment 
of educational institutions must be at once 
conceded, and therefore it can scarcely be regarded as 
remarkable that in proportion to its population the 
National Capital already outranks all other American 
cities in the number of its institutions of learning. 
Including the American University, now in course of 
building, Washington contains five universities, be- 
sides six or more independent colleges. In addition to 
these institutions of higher education there are no less 
than thirty academies and seminaries, with a large 
number of other private schools; and all these as 
independent of the public-school system with its one 
hundred and forty buildings and fifty thousand pupils. 
Aside from the intrinsic worth of 
atmosDhere these educational institutions, it must 
be obvious that the primary value of 
any university or school in Washington lies in the 
advantages offered by the National Capital itself — 
advantages such as cannot possibly be had by institu- 
tions of learning elsewhere, no matter what their 
resources or standards of excellence may be. Wash- 
ington possesses the academic atmosphere. It 
abounds in historic associations. Its representative 

51 



Wa^f^inqton a^ a Center of Eearrning 

citizens are men and women of culture in science, in 
art, in letters, in philosophy. The absence of com- 
mercial and manufacturing activity, the presence in 
the city of the largest body of scientific investigators 
in the world, the discussion of public questions, the 
spirit of nationalism, and the broad intellectual life, 
constitute a humanizing and educative influence of 
the greatest value in the development of the American 
scholar. And to these general advantages involved 
in the characteristic communal life of the National 
Capital must be added the special advantages ofi'ered 
under the law already mentioned, by which the vast 
collections and unrivaled scientific resources of the 
United States Government are placed at the disposal 
of students associated with the universities and schools 
of higher education, while the museums and libraries 
are accessible at all times to pupils of every grade. 

But while the distinctive advan- 
Georgetown tages thus enjoyed by the educational 
institutions of Washington must 
necessarily give them their chief importance, there 
are many of them, nevertheless, that have earned 
national reputations based upon their individual 
merits. The Georgetown University, for example, 
incorporated in 1844, is well known throughout the 
country, both for the excellence of its work and as one 
of the most important institutions of learning in 
America under the auspices of the Roman Catholic 
Church. 

52 



aBbucational g^n-eftxtution^ 



Georp-e Columbian University, now known 

Washington as the George Washington University, 
University j^^s ever since its beginning, in 1821, 

stood as the representative of higher 
education at the National Capital. In fact, its 
establishment was due largely to a desire on the part 
of its founders to fulfill in a measure the wishes of 
George Washington, and when Congress appro- 
priated the land for the first college building Presi- 
dent Jackson expressed his approval and the hope 
that the institution might in time realize this patriotic 
ideal. From the very start it met with the patronage 
and support of America's leading public men. John 
Quincy Adams assisted it at one time with a loan of 
;^20,ooo, besides contributing a donation of $j,ooo, 
and William Corcoran by his gift of ^100,000 enabled 
the institution to assume the larger duties of a uni- 
versity. The recent adoption of its new name and 
certain amendments of its charter allowing a broader 
scope of organization are significant of its purpose to 
give substantial realization to the wishes of him 
whose name it now bears. 

"The University has now a Department 
Various of Arts and Sciences, undergraduate and 

departments. graduate courses, with 452 students; a 

Department of Medicine, with 306 stu- 
dents; a Department of Dentistry, with 84 students; a 
Department of Law, with 469 students, a Department of 
Jurisprudence and Diplomacy, with 75 students, and Courses 

53 



^ajBfljington a^ a Center of ^learning 

for Teachers, with 59 students. Its officers of administration 
and instruction number 206, and comprise among them 
some of the most distinguished men in educational and 
administrative work in the country. It has graduated 4,560 
students, conferring in all 5,693 degrees. From 1821 to 
1884 it granted 2,324 degrees to 1,949 students; in the next 
decade it granted 1,070 degrees to 895 students, and in the 
last decade to 1903, inclusive, it has granted 2,299 degrees 
to 1,716 students. The University now has in all depart- 
ments 1,445 students, and every State in the Union, the 
Territories, and the District of Columbia are represented in 
the student body, as well as Hawaii, Philippine Islands, 
Porto Rico, Chili, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Germany, 
Japan, Peru, and Venezuela. 

" By action of the Board of Trustees of the University, 
there has been formed an auxiliary corporation to be known 
as Columbian College. This corporation is vested with the 
conduct of the undergraduate work, and closely allied with 
the University, some of its trustees being members of the 
University Board of Trustees, its highest official officer being 
a Dean, and the Dean and professors of the College being 
members of the University Council. No degrees will be 
conferred by the College, the undergraduates going up to the 
University for their examinations and degrees. 

" It is also proposed by the University to offer this plan of 
college organization to other groups of persons who are inter- 
ested in establishing colleges in Washington, with the view 
to having several colleges conducting undergraduate work 
connected with the university and allied to it. Under this 
arrangement the University will conduct purely graduate and 
professional work, leaving the undergraduate work to the 
colleges. 



54 



OBtiucational ^n^titution^ 



" In the Department of Arts and Sciences, 
Graduate graduate work of the highest order will be carried 
work. Qjy under the most approved professors and 

teachers. It is expected that arrangements may 
be made with colleges throughout the country by which, 
upon certificates of graduation from the colleges, the students 
will be received into the University for all graduate work, as- 
sisting the smaller colleges to retain their students for the 
baccalaureate degrees and giving the students the opportu- 
nity to take their graduate degrees from this University. It 
will also be the policy of the University to enter into recip- 
rocal arrangements with the other great universities by which 
students will be given the opportunity to take advantage of 
the facilities in Washington for special work, receiving credit 
in their own institution for the work done here and taking 
their degrees from the institution from which they come. 
This arrangement will also give the students of The George 
Washington University the opportunity to take special work 
in other universities, for which they will receive due credit 
here. 

"The University has recently purchased 
New location. ^ ^^^ site, containing about five acres of 
land, fronting upon the President's Park, 
immediately south of the White House, and fronting 
south upon Potomac Park. The Potomac Park and the 
public grounds immediately around this site and along the 
Potomac River contain over one thousand acres. This 
park is being steadily improved by the National Government 
and will be in time one of the finest parks in this country. 
These public grounds will give the students of this Univer- 
sity the largest opportunity for recreation and athletic sports. 
On either side of the Mall and within walking distance of 



55 



^a!6f|)in0ton a^ a Center of Itearning 

the University are the permanent Government buildings, 
with their Hbraries and laboratories all open to the student." * 

These two universities — Georgetown and the 
George Washington — may be classed with univer- 
sities in general throughout the United States as 
typical in their basic features of that character of 
educational institutions. The three other univer- 
sities at the Capital, however, are essentially distinct 
in purpose and character, and in this respect con- 
tribute to the uniqueness of Washington's educa- 
tional features. These are the Howard University, 
the Catholic University of America, and the American 
University. 

The first derives its name from 

Howard q^^ q q Howard, through whose 

Umversity. ... 

instrumentality the university was 

founded, in 1867. While its motto reads, "Equal 
rights and knowledge for all," it is designedly an insti- 
tution for the higher education of the Negro, and as 
such it is the oldest and most noteworthy in the country. 
It is, in fact, the only example of its kind in which 
white and colored professors and officials have worked 
together with equal authority for the development of 
a university for the Negro race. Its faculty is com- 
posed of both races, and with the exception of the 
presidency the highest offices of the university have 



* " Columbian [George Washington] University Bulletin," June, 
1904. 

56 



€tiucational ^n^titution^ 



been held at times by colored men. More than forty 
Negroes are associated with the faculty and adminis- 
trative corps of the institution; their work embracing 
the entire field of instruction, including law, medi- 
cine and theology. Dr. John Gordon, the President, 
in speaking on this subject, says, "In all our depart- 
ments our experience with the colored instructors has 
been so happy that we make no distinction, but 
merely consider the fitness of the applicant for the 
particular task. Sometimes a colored man seems 
best fitted for the charge and sometimes a white man. 
We have them working in every branch of instruction 
side by side with the white teachers." 

All instruction, except that in the medical depart- 
ment, is free; and in recognition of the worthiness of 
its object and the good it has accomplished, the 
United States Government contributes an annual 
appropriation toward the support of the university. 
The institution offers its advantages without regard 
to creed, race or sex; admitting both men and women 
of any and all nationalities. Of its more than eight 
hundred students a large proportion are women, and 
there is scarcely a State or Territory in the Union that 
is not represented, while included in the list are 
students from England, Natal, Liberia, Japan and 
the West Indies, as well as from Cuba, Porto Rico, 
British Guiana and Macedonia. 



57 



9^ajBfJ)ington a^^ a Center of learning 

Catholic ^^ point of distinctiveness, the 

University Catholic University of America ranks 

of America. equally with that of Howard Uni- 
versity, though it differs widely and 
fundamentally in its characteristic features. In its 
plan and its purposes are contained the potentialities 
of a university of world-wide influence and power. 
It stands as the supreme head of Roman Catholic 
learning in America — the culmination of the Church's 
great educational system, embracing, as it does, up- 
wards of four thousand parish schools, seven hun- 
dred colleges and academies, thirty theological 
seminaries and two universities. Designed specifi- 
cally for the prosecution of post-graduate theo- 
logical studies, it aims at the same time to embrace 
all departments of a university in their highest devel- 
opment, and toward this end it has already estab- 
lished nine schools with twenty-four subordinate 
departments. These are the schools of Sacred 
Sciences, Philosophy, Letters, Physical Sciences, 
Biological Sciences, Social Sciences, Law, Juris- 
prudence, and Technological Sciences. 

The scope of the University can best be recited in 
the words of Pope Leo as contained in his Apostolic 
Letter of March 7, 1889: 

" We give, therefore, to your University power to confer 
academic degrees on students who shall have passed satis- 
factory examinations, and likewise to bestow the doctorate 

58 



€tiucattonal g^n^titution^ 



in philosophy, theology, pontifical law, and in 
Letter of those other studies in which the different 
Pope Leo. degrees and the doctorate are usually conferred, 

whenever the teaching of those branches shall 
have been established. * * * jj-j Qj-^jgj- ^y^^^ ^ greater 
number may enjoy more abundantly the benefits of the 
teachings of the University in the various departments, let 
these schools, and especially the Schools of Philosophy and 
Theology, be thrown open, not only to those who have com- 
pleted their studies according to the decrees of the Third 
Plenary Council of Baltimore, but also to those who wish to 
begin or continue their studies." 

The University is thus empowered to confer not 
only the doctorate but also the academic degrees, 
I. e., the degrees of Bachelor and Master; to receive 
both graduate and undergraduate students; and to 
teach not only the ecclesiastical sciences, but all 
branches of learning leading to a degree. 

"In this light," to quote the Right Reverend R. 
Gilmour, D.D., Bishop of Cleveland, in his ser- 
mon delivered at the dedication of the Uni- 
versity in November, 1889, "specialists will come 
to the University, one to study Divinity, another 
Scripture, or History, while others will take up 
Law or Medicine. Here the philologist and the 
scientist will find the best, and all will find their 
noblest aspirations enlarged and spurred on to 
the full." 

The constitution of the University, as prescribed 

59 



9^a^6ington a^ a Center of ^learning 

by the Pope, provides that the institution shall always 
remain under the control of the Bishops. Their 
authority is delegated to a board of Trustees, the 
President of which is the Chancellor of the Univer- 
sity, an office which has been held from the beginning 
by Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. 
Affiliated with the University are seven Colleges, all 
but one of which are situated in Washington and 
grouped about the University, and diplomas from 
which entitle their graduates to enter the University 
without examination. These are the St. Paul Sem- 
inary, St. Thomas College, The Marist College, 
Holy Cross College, The College of the Holy Land, 
St. Austin's College, and the Apostolic Mission 
House. 

The example thus set by the Roman 

The American c^^holic Church in establishing a post- 
Umversity. . . ^ . ^ 

graduate university at Washmgton 

has been followed by the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in the location here of a similar institution under the 
title of the American University. Although the 
enterprise is strictly under the control and manage- 
ment of the Methodists, it is not their intention that 
the University shall be purely denominational; but 
that, while standing primarily for the higher educa- 
tion of Methodist students, it shall bear the same 
relation to the Protestant Church in general as the 
Catholic University bears to the Roman hierarchy. 

60 



€tiucational S^n^titution^er 



It differs from the Catholic institution, however, in 
that it is designed exclusively for post-graduate 
work in all departments; the object being to make 
it in this respect the foremost university of its kind in 
America. 

It was chartered by Congress in 1893 and has 
already erected two buildings — the College of His- 
tory and the College of Government — upon its pic- 
turesque site of ninety-four acres at the northwestern 
end of the city. With its contemplated endowment 
of at least ten millions, the University when com- 
pleted will consist of not less than twenty-one build- 
ings, all of classic architecture and built of white 
marble; while the facilities to be offered for work in 
professional, original and special studies will not only 
be in keeping with the general magnitude of the 
undertaking, but will be so thorough and so compre- 
hensive as to render both useless and unattractive the 
present custom on the part of American students of 
seeking post-graduate degrees in the universities of 
Europe. 

In the words of the late Bishop 
for^the^ex-*^ Hurst, through whose untiring efforts 
pression of the success of the University has be- 

Christian come assured, "the institution is 

principles. j • j 1 l- 1 r 

designed to represent the highest form 

of Christian education, to be the exponent of the best 

forces of Christian thought and activity, and to ex- 



61 



9^a^f)tngton a^ a Center of Itearning 

press at this center of our civil and political influence 
the firm faith of our people and their devotion to 
Christ and His Kingdom." And besides its higher 
spiritual purposes as thus outlined by Bishop Hurst, 
its practical educational aims and advantages are set 
forth in the following statement by Bishop McCabe, 
the present head of the Church: "The American 
University wall be for post-graduate work only. 
This is not another college. Only those students 
will be received who have graduated in other colleges; 
and so many have already applied for admission and 
have announced their intention of taking post-gradu- 
ate courses with us, that I may safely say there is no 
university or college in Washington today that has 
half as many students as those who have signified 
their desire to come to us, and would come if we were 
ready to receive them. They will come to Washing- 
ton to avail themselves of the libraries, museums, 
laboratories and institutions which belong to the 
Government. The opportunities for original re- 
search are unequaled in the world. President 
Harper, of the University of Chicago, is quoted as 
saying: 'Give me a million dollars and I will make a 
better university in Washington than can be made in 
Chicago with ten millions.' " 

With these aims and with these prospects, the 
American University must in time be not only a 
greater university than can be made in Chicago or 

62 



Ctiucational 5Fn^titution^ 



any other city of America, but must be able to hold 
its own with the greatest universities of the world. 

Absolutely unique among the in- 
tarnegie stitutions of learning in Washington, 

as well as the entire country, is the 
Carnegie Institution. It stands alone and unclassi- 
fied. It occupies a field of its own, and a field that is 
destined to produce not only far-reaching benefits to 
the cause of learning, but the highest possible 
achievements of human thought and endeavor. 
That its character may be properly understood by 
the public the Institution has issued the following 
statement as to its scope and methods: 

"The Institution was founded by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, in 
the winter of 1901-2, when he gave to a board of trustees 
ten milHon dollars in registered bonds, yielding five percent, 
income. In general terms he stated that his purpose was to 
'found in the city of Washington an institution which, with 
the co-operation of institutions now or hereafter established, 
there or elsewhere, shall in the broadest and most liberal 
manner encourage investigation, research, and discovery — 
show the application of knowledge to the improvement of 
mankind, and provide such buildings, laboratories, books, 
and apparatus, as may be needed.' 

"By an act of Congress, approved April 28, 1904, the Insti- 
tution went under the control of a board of twenty-four 
trustees, all of whom had been members of the previous board. 

"The Trustees act through an Executive Committee, by 
whom grants are made for specific objects from appropria- 
tions made by the Trustees. 

63 



^a^ljington a^ a Center of learning 

"Some large projects which are to be promoted by the 
Carnegie Institution will absorb much of the income, but the 
aggregate of the smaller grants is also quite large. 

"A certain number of Research Assistants have been 
appointed. These are young men and young women who 
have shown unusual aptitude for scientific investigation and 
have manifested a desire to take up some specific problem 
and work at it during one or more years. The stipend for 
these appointments is usually $1,000 per annum. The 
recipient is not allowed to be a teacher or a laboratory 
assistant in the usual sense of the word; he is expected to 
give all his time to the object named in his letter of appli- 
cation and to report upon the progress of his work at such 
times as the Institution may require. No provision is made 
for the payment of ' helpers ' in colleges and laboratories. 

"The Institutionjias undertaken to publish certain works 
which would not readily see the light without aid from an 
endowment. It is not proposed to scatter these publications 
indiscriminately, for their contents are of interest only to 
students of the subjects discussed, but they can be bought at 
a low price. 

"To correct some misapprehensions, it may be remarked 
that Carnegie Institution is not a university, a college, a 
school, a library, or a museum. 

"Any person or any institution desiring to present import- 
ant subjects for the consideration of the Trustees, may do 
so by letter, addressed directly to Carnegie Institution, 
Washington, D. C." 

The Board of Trustees is composed of representa- 
tive statesmen, scientists, and educators. Included 
among them, as ex-officio members, are the President 

64 



(iBtiucational g^n^titution-Gf 



of the United States, the President of the Senate, 
the Speaker of the House, the Secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, and the President of the National 
Academy of Sciences. In deeding to this Board of 
Trustees the funds for the endowment of the Institu- 
tion, Mr. Carnegie stipulated that among its aims 
should be these: 

" 1. To promote original research, paying 
Aims and great attention thereto as one of the most 

purposes of important of all departments. 

g . II 2 Xo discover the exceptional man in 

every department of study whenever and 

wherever found, inside or outside of schools, and enable him 

to make the work for which he seems specially designed his 

life work. 

" 3. To increase facilities for higher education. 

" 4. To increase the efficiency of the Universities and other 
institutions of learning throughout the country, by utilizing 
and adding to their existing facilities and aiding teachers in 
the various institutions for experimental and other work, in 
these institutions as far as advisable. 

" 5. To enable such students as may find Washington the 
best point for their special studies, to enjoy the advantages 
of the Museums, Libraries, Laboratories, Observatory, 
Meteorological, Piscicultural, and Forestry Schools, and 
kindred institutions of the several departments of the 
Government. 

' 6. To ensure the prompt publication and distribution of 
the results of scientific investigation, a field considered 
highly important. 

65 



Wa^l^inqton a^ a Center of Jtearning 

"The specific objects named are considered most impor- 
tant in our day, but the Trustees shall have full power, by 
a majority of two-thirds of their number, to modify the con- 
ditions and regulations under which the funds may be dis- 
pensed, so as to secure that these shall always be applied in 
the manner best adapted to the changed conditions of the 
time ; provided always that any modifications shall be in 
accordance with the purposes of the donor, as expressed in 
the Trust, and that the revenues be applied to objects 
kindred to those named, — the chief purpose of the Founder 
being to secure if possible for the United States of America 
leadership in the domain of discovery and the utilization of 
new forces for the benefit of man." 

It is in his concluding sentence that 
Leadership in ^^ ^^^ ^^^ keynote of the founder's 
discovery and . . • .^ , , ■ r 

invention. patriotic object — "the chief purpose 

of the founder being to secure if possible 
for the United States of America leadership in the do- 
main of discovery and the utilization of new forces for 
the benefit of man." 

When it is remembered that the productive funds 
of Harvard University are only a little over fourteen 
millions, while those of the University of Chicago 
amount to but ^8,600,000, and when we consider the 
important and comprehensive work accomplished 
by this and other universities of its class, it will not be 
difficult to conceive of the vast results that may be 
obtained with a working capital of ten millions de- 
voted entirely to original research, without any of the 
university expenses involved in the constant main- 

&6 



<!Etiucational 5^n^titution^ 



tenance of laboratories, museums and numerous 
buildings, the pay of instructors, and the many other 
expenditures necessary to the administration of estab- 
lishments of that character; so that there is every 
reason to feel confident that with its munificent and un- 
trammeled resources, the Carnegie Institution will in 
time fulfill its founder's exalted and patriotic purpose. 
Although the Institution has been 

Money grants in existence for so short a time, it has 
for scientific i j j i u r 

research already made a large number or 

grants through which much of im- 
portance has been accomplished, and its list of publi- 
cations already includes more than a dozen scientific 
treatises and valuable reports. Some idea of the 
character of the grants allowed and the wide field of 
scientific research covered by them may be gleaned 
by enumerating a few of them selected from those 
made during the fiscal year 1902-03: ^2,000 to W. H. 
Holmes, Director of the Bureau of American Ethnol- 
ogy, for obtaining evidence of the early history of man 
in America; 1^500 to George W. Kunz, of New York, 
to investigate the precious stones and minerals used 
in ancient Babylonia; ^5,000 to Lewis Boss, of the 
Dudley Observatory, Albany, for astronomical ob- 
servations and computations; ^3,000 to Simon New- 
comb, of Washington, to determine the elements of 
the moon's motion and to test the law of gravity; 
;^5,ooo to Herbert Putnam, Librarian of the Library 

07 



W^^f^inqton a^ a Center of Hearning 

of Congress, to prepare and publish a handbook of 
learned societies; ^i,ooo to H. C. Jones, of Johns 
Hopkins University, for certain investigations in 
physical chemistry; ^4,120 to W. F. Durand, of 
Cornell University, for experiments on ship resist- 
ance and propulsion; ^6,000 to T. C. Chamberlain, 
of the University of Chicago, to study the funda- 
mental principles of geology; ^5,000 to W. O. Atv^ater, 
of the Wesleyan University, for experiments in nutri- 
tion; ^1,600 to E. W. Scripture, of Yale University, 
for researches in experimental phonetics. 

These are typical of the minor grants allowed dur- 
ing one year, for which a total of ^200,000 was appro- 
priated from the income of the Institution. All of 
these, as well as the larger grants, are made subject 
to the fixed policy of the Institution, that it will not 
undertake to do anything that is being well done by 
other agencies, nor enter the field of existing organiza- 
tions that are properly equipped or likely to be so 
equipped. This policy tends toward a further en- 
hancement of its value by confining its forces to 
special and original enterprises and to repairing the 
deficiencies that exist in various branches of science. 
Of the colleges of Washington, 
Education of Gallaudet College is perhaps the only 
the l^ai Qj^g ^^^^ admits of classification as 

and Dumb. . . ^^i • r> u • "i 

distmctive. I his College is an auxil- 
iary of what is known as the Columbian Institution 

68 



oEtiucational g^n^tttiition>Gf 



for the Deaf and Dumb, an institution largely sup- 
ported by the Government and including in its board 
of directors Members of Congress, Justices of the 
United States Supreme Court and citizens of the 
District of Columbia. The purpose of the college, 
as indicated, is the higher education of the deaf and 
dumb, and the work it accomplishes in this field of 
instruction renders it one of the most noteworthy of 
Washington's educational institutions. 

Among the many professional 

Law school schools at the National Capital, the 

for women. ttt , • on ci 

Washmgton College or Law occupies 

a unique position, by reason of the fact that it is 

designed especially for the instruction of women. 

Its faculty of twenty-one members contains four 

women professors, all members of the Bar, and one 

of whom is dean of the college. The courses of 

study lead to the degrees of Bachelor of Laws and 

Master of Laws, and the majority of the women 

graduates become practising lawyers. 

The public schools of Washington 

The pubhc ^jq ^q^ differ essentially from those of 

schools. . . -^ . . 

other large cities, excepting in the 

unusual advantages offered the pupils by their close 

association with the judicial and administrative life 

of the Nation and the facilities at their disposal 

through the Government exhibits and libraries. A 

high standard of proficiency is maintained, with the 

09 



^a^^ington a^ a Center of ^learning 

result that the graduates of the high schools are ad- 
mitted on certificate alone, without examination, to 
seventeen different colleges and universities through- 
out the United States, and the general excellence of 
the schools is attested by the fact that they number 
among their pupils the children of the President of 
the United States, the children of members of the 
Cabinet, of Senators and Representatives and of the 
Ambassadors and Ministers of foreign governments, 
as well as the children of the wealthiest and most 
influential citizens of the Capital. 

In the education of the colored 

egro youth the public-school system of 

education. ■' . 

Washington takes precedence over 

that of any other place in the country. The dis- 
tinguishing feature of the system as applied to this 
branch of instruction consists in giving separate 
schools to the Negroes, but of equal rank with corre- 
sponding grades of the white schools, and having 
them administered wholly by colored teachers and 
principals. By this method, therefore, the sixteen 
thousand colored pupils in the District of Columbia, 
with their four hundred and fifty teachers of the same 
race, constitute, practically, a separate school-body, 
while their interests in the general administrative 
afi^airs of the public-school system are looked after by 
two Negro members of the Board of Education. 
Experience has shown that by thus placing them upon 

70 



€tiucational S^n^titution^ 



a footing where they are expected to accomplish, 
without assistance from their white brothers, the 
standards and duties set for them, they are capable 
of achieving excellent and often remarkable results, 
besides profiting through the spirit of self-reliance 
thus instilled. This success in Negro instruction, 
coupled with the work accomplished by the Howard 
University, places Washington prominently in the 
lead as a center of education for the Negro race. 

In religious education Washington 
Religious jg rapidly gaining the leading position 

which it is destined to hold as the 
representative city of the nation's spiritual culture. 
The Catholic University of America and the theologi- 
cal college of Howard University are already estab- 
lished institutions in this domain of educational 
work, while the American University, with its avowed 
Christian purposes, will prove a powerful acquisition 
to the Capital's resources as a center of religious 
thought and activity. In addition to these univer- 
sities with their facilities for higher theological study 
and their manifest influence upon the educational 
spirit of the city, there are a number of other religious 
institutions having for their object the special training 
of their students or members in the various branches 
of Christian knowledge. Chief among these is the 
Young Men's Christian Association, which, besides, 
its strong local influence, stands as the representative 



71 



Wa^f^inqton a$f a Center of ^learning 

head of this important organization in America, and 
under the plans which are now materiahzing it will 
soon be equipped in a manner befitting its leading 
rank in this vital and far-reaching field of practical 
religious training. Associated with it are some of the 
Capital's most distinguished men in social and official 
life, and the fact that such men as these take an active 
personal interest in this and other religious organiza- 
tions of the city — Bible classes, schools of Scriptural 
pedagogy, ethical societies and like associations — is 
in itself a significant commentary on the position 
occupied by Washington in its conception of the im- 
portance attaching to the spiritual development of 
the American people. 

It would be entirely beyond the 
Every phase of scope of the present work to attempt 
educational to describe or enumerate all of Wash- 

work repre- • ^ 5 j .• 1 • .v 

. J mgton s many educational mstitu- 

tions, both secular and religious. 
Suffice it to say that they represent all phases of edu- 
cational work, from the kindergarten to the univer- 
sity, including special schools and colleges of art, of 
music, of dramatics, of technology, of physical cul- 
ture, of business, and of manual and professional 
training of every kind, as well as a number of corre- 
spondence schools. As a distinctive example of this 
last-named class of institutions, mention should be 
made of the Intercontinental Correspondence Uni- 

72 



CDucational ^n^titntwn^ 



versity, which aims to cover this field of work more 
thoroughly and more satisfactorily than any other 
establishment of its kind, and which, for this purpose, 
has associated with it, in addition to men of special 
educational ability, several Senators and Repre- 
sentatives, Justices of the United States Supreme 
Court, the Commissioner of Education, and other 
distinguished Government officials, whose names 
must necessarily give weight and unquestioned au- 
thority to the teachings of the school. And it is this 
influence, which springs from personal association 
with the great men of the Nation — this influence, 
this atmosphere of authority, which attaches innately 
to whatever bears the impress of the National Capi- 
tal — that gives to all educational institutions here a 
recognized prestige, and which, through them, bears 
increasing testimony to Washington's paramount 
position as an educational center. 



73 



^ <^limp^t into tl^e future* 

TO speak of Washington's future as a center 
of learning does not require the gift of a seer. 
Its destiny Hes already firmly secured in its 
potentialities. What it has accomplished in the past, 
and what it is today are the illuminating guide to its 
future. Unlike any other city in the world, Wash- 
ington was laid out upon clearly defined lines for 
certain specific and definite purposes; and it is only 
necessary to become acquainted with these purposes 
and with what has been attained through them up 
to the present time, to determine what the final result 
of their fulfillment shall be. 

When George Washington ap- 
The city proved the plans of the Federal City 

magnificent^ ^^ prepared by L'Enfant and they 
scale. were adopted by Congress, it was with 

the knowledge and understanding 
that they were enormously beyond the requirements 
of the time. With streets and avenues from 130 to 
160 feet wide — exceeding by three and four times the 
accustomed width of city thoroughfares, — and with 
the public buildings deliberately placed at great dis- 
tances apart, it is not surprising that there were many 
in those early days who failed to comprehend the 
reasonableness of a city built upon so elaborate a 

75 



Wa0i)inQton a^ a Center of learning 

scale. And when it began to grow and these features 
of its physical character became accentuated in real- 
ity, it required an exercise of courageous faith on the 
part of the Nation's leaders to believe that the city 
was destined to survive and fulfill the glorious aims 
that had been set for it. Those who were lacking in 
faith or in sympathy, and they were in the great 
majority, were convinced that an egregious folly had 
been committed in attempting to set up a Capital on 
such an extensive and wasteful plan, and many 
were the attempts made in the early years of our . 
national existence to induce Congress to abandon 
the city. 

The aspect of wilderness presented 
obi^ct of ^y Washington, with its scattered 

ridicule. houses, its great stretches of unim- 

proved and unpaved roadways, its 
abundance of parking space, wild and unadorned, 
and the seemingly enormous distances that separated 
the different Government departments, produced 
anything but a favorable impression upon those who 
chanced to visit the Capital city, and it became an 
object of scorn and raillery to foreigners as well as to 
Americans themselves. Thomas Moore, the Irish 
poet, who visited Washington in 1804, could not 
resist the temptation to commemorate the American 
Capital in satirical verse: 



76 



^ oBlimp^e into tJ)e future 



"This embryo capital, where fancy sees 
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees ; 
Which second-sighted seers ev'n now adorn 
With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn. 
Though nought but woods and Jefferson they see. 
Where streets should run and sages ought to be." 
Our own Gouverneur Morris was no less sarcastic 
when referring to Washington. "All that we need 
here," he wrote on one occasion, "are houses, cellars, 
kitchens, scholarly men, amiable women, and a few 
other such trifles, to possess a perfect city. In a 
word, this is the best city in the world to live in — in 
the future." It was John Randolph who derisively 
styled it "the City of Magnificent Distances," a title 
which Charles Dickens subsequently paraphrased 
as "The City of Magnificent Intentions." Even as 
late as 1861 it was described by a Bostonian as a 
"paradise of paradoxes, a great, little, splendid, 
mean, extravagant, poverty-striken barrack for sol- 
diers of fortune and votaries of folly;" while a Phila- 
delphia woman writing of it several years later de- 
nounced is as "the most disappointing, disheartening 
conglomerate that ever shocked the pride or patriot- 
ism of order-loving, beauty-worshiping woman." 

There can be no denying that for 
The real the first sixty or seventy years of its 

Washington. existence Washington was a disap- 
pointment. It failed to attract capi- 
tal for commercial enterprises; very few of those who 

77 



LofG. 



^a^ljington a^ a Center of Steaming 

engaged in the Government service made their 
homes here, and Congress took scarcely any interest 
whatever in the development of the city. The 
result was that its streets and parks remained 
unimproved, while the cost of keeping them in any- 
thing like proper condition was too heavy to be met 
by the residents of the capital. It was not until a 
serious movement was set on foot, about 1870, to 
remove the seat of Government to a more central, a 
more prosperous and a more presentable-looking 
city, that Congress awoke to its duties and to a reali- 
zation of the surpassing beauties and advantages in- 
volved in a proper development of Washington. 
And so it came about, in May of 187 1, that Governor 
Shepherd, as the embodiment of the progressive 
spirit of national pride, began his herculean task of 
transferring Washington from a city of mud and hap- 
hazard, unsightly development into a semblance of 
what the National Capital was planned to be. 
Though his regime lasted scarcely three years and he 
was virtually obliged to flee the country to escape the 
venomous persecution and enmity which he had in- 
spired by his necessarily disturbing and autocratic 
measures, he succeeded, nevertheless, in saving the 
Capital and establishing it irrevocably upon the 
foundations designed for it, — a task, which in the 
light of its results, reveals itself today as one of mo- 
mentous import and insures for the memory of Alex- 

78 



^ <aiimp^c into tf)e future 



ander Shepherd the lasting reverence of a grateful 
nation. 

But even with the changes thus wrought and the 
impetus thus given to the expansion of Washington, 
it required a long time to eradicate the prejudices 
that had been engendered during the many years of 
the Capital's unpromisin growth. Many Congress- 
men, in particular, as exponents of the sentiments of 
the general public, continued to manifest but an 
indifferent interest. They remained loath to vote 
for any measure involving an expenditure of public 
funds for the improvement of the Capital, dominated 
as they were by the popular conception that Washing- 
ton was a local city and consequently of secondary im- 
portance to a Congressman's home town. 

In spite of these adverse influences, 
We are all however, Washington continued to 

as ing- grow and to unfold its latent beauties 

tomans. » . 

and magnificence, until the American 

people began to realize with patriotic pride how 
splendid a National Capital was theirs. And then 
came the dawning recognition of the fact that Wash- 
ington is not a local city; that it does not belong to the 
residents of the District of Columbia; that it is not a 
city entering into commercial rivalry with other 
cities, and that it does not represent any particular 
section of the country or class of people; but, on the 
contrary, that it stands alone and apart as the Capi- 

79 



W^^f^inqton a^ a Center of learning 

tal, the Center, of a great nation, representing equally 
all sections and all classes and belonging alike to 
every citizen of the United States. This recognition, 
this realization that every man and woman of 
America is a Washingtonian, was bound to come 
sooner or later in the natural evolution of American 
life, and now that it has come it marks the beginning 
of Washington's higher development and its attain- 
ment to the lofty pinnacle of greatness and power 
designed for it by the far-seeing founders of the 
Republic. 

Marvelous as has been the growth 
improvement ^"^ improvement of the city since the 
days of Shepherd, rendering it as it 
stands today— according to the unprejudiced testi- 
mony of foreign travelers — the most beautiful city on 
the face of the earth, it is but as the opening of the 
flower. The full bloom of its physical grandeur is 
yet to come in the fulfillment of the plans and pro- 
jects already under way — the creation of a magnifi- 
cent park, bordering Pennsylvania avenue and reach- 
ing from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, 
the adornment of the river front, the erection of the 
largest and most imposing railway station in the 
world, the rebuilding and construction of a large 
number of Government buildings upon plans of 
unusual magnitude and beauty, and the building of 
magnificent private homes, each vying with the other 

80 



SI oBlimpj^e into ti)t future 



in picturesqueness of site, beauty of surroundings and 
handsomeness of design. 

And with this expansion of its material beauty, its 
rapidly increasing popularity, and its growing politi- 
cal world power as the Capital of the American 
Nation, there must follow inevitably a universal 
acceptance of Washington as the nation's center of 
learning. The materials, the opportunities, the 
advantages are already here. It but awaits a com- 
prehending recognition of the fact by the American 
people, to give radiance and spiritual power to the 
supremacy of the nation; and when it is fully realized, 
as it is beginning to be, the intellectual glory of Wash- 
ington will be no less transcendent and no less a 
source of patriotic pride than is its physical and 
political sovereignty today. 

And what may we not hope for the 
A youthful ultimate glory of Washington and its 
institutions of learning when we con- 
sider that the Capital has been in existence scarcely 
more than a century — a Capital younger by hun- 
dreds of years than any of the great Capitals of 
Europe ? We need but remember that Berlin is 
eight hundred years old and that London and Paris 
were in existence before the Christian era, to appre- 
ciate the rank that Washington has attained in its 
comparatively few years. Looking even to our own 
country, Washington is a youth among the cities of 

81 



^^a^fjington a^ a Center of learning 

the East. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Balti- 
more and a score of others were prosperous and time- 
honored towns before the name of Washington as a 
city had been uttered; and although it has been out- 
stripped in population and rapidity of growth by 
many of the later cities of the West, it must not be 
forgotten that these and all the other big cities of 
America owe their development and their existence 
to financial and industrial interests. Washington, 
on the contrary, has grown and is maintained today 
without the aid of any of these stimulating factors — 
a verity that cannot but prove significant and im- 
pressive. Turning to its educational institutions, 
we realize how brief is their history compared with 
that of schools and universities in other places. 
When we recall, for example, that the University of 
Princeton has been in existence since 1746, Yale 
since 1718, and Harvard since 1636, or nearly two 
hundred years before the birth of Washington's old- 
est institution, is it not rather to be marveled at, with 
public bias thus early formed in favor of these in- 
stitutions of learning in the East, that Washington 
should even by this time hold the place it does as a 
seat of university education ? 

With organized facilities for the utilization of the 
Government's laboratories and collections, such as 
will result from the establishment of the American 
University now under way and the development of 

82 



^ <iBlimp^e into tf)e future 



the George Washington University 

The seat of along the Hnes of its new policy, Wash- 

national . 11 I • • , 

education. ington will become in practical reality 

the crowning point of the educational 

system of the Nation; the center toward which all 

education will gravitate; the ultimate goal toward 

which every university and college in America will 

set its face. The recognition of the Capital as the 

seat of American post-graduate work will necessarily 

result in the gathering and co-ordination here of the 

highest forms of all educational work. 

The leading schools of American art 

The center of ^^j music and letters will eventually 
national i i • 111 

influence. ^^^^ their permanent establishment in 

Washington, while the great civic and 
religious organizations of the country will likewise 
establish their headquarters here. It cannot be other- 
wise. The crowning development, the highest form 
of achievement, the ultimate expression of authority 
in every branch of knowledge, art or religion will be 
sought for at the National Capital. And as the Re- 
public grows stronger and more potent as a political 
leader among nations, so will its educational and 
moral attributes keep pace correspondingly, until it 
shall stand emblemized, not merely as Liberty 
enlightening the world, but as Knowledge glorifying 
mankind; and all men shall point to Washington as 
the dominating center of the spiritual and intel- 
lectual forces of civilization. 



83 



Announcement 

In uniform style and price with "Washington As A Cen- 
ter of Learning," the publishers will soon bring out a work 
on "The Brighter Side of Washington." This book is now 
in course of preparation by Mr. B. F. Johnson, the Presi- 
dent of the Company. 



Men of Mark in America 

A Few Brief and Pertinent Observations 



Collections of Biography. 

'TpHE great value of collections of well-written biographies is 
■*■ universally recognized. They are interesting to all readers and 
helpful to all workers. There are a few such works on the market. 
But there is room for one more. Not only this, but one more is 
needed. And, under the title of "Men of Mark in America," it is 
now in course of preparation. 

New Collections the Best. 

/^THER things being equal the newer the collection of biography 
^-^ the greater will be both its relative and its actual value. Even the 
brief period of ten years greatly impairs the usefulness of a work of 
this kind. During this time many men who had attracted but little 
attention beyond the borders of their own states have come into 
national prominence, and equally great changes in leadership have 
occurred in the various lines of intellectual and industrial activity. 
These are important matters, but no note of them can be found in 
the cyclopedia of the past. 

''Men of Mark'' the Latest i?i the Field. 

T)LANS for this work have been in the process of formation and 
■*■ development for more than fifteen years but the actual prepara- 
tion of the biographies has only recently been commenced. It will 
have the latest information that it is possible to supply. 

Has Important Distinctive Features. 

"^JOT only is "Men of Mark" a new and up-to-date work but it 
■^ ^ has certain exceedingly valuable features which are peculiar to 
itself. This departure from the ordinary method of preparation adds 



much to the interest of the biographies and greatly increases their 
usefulness to the student and to the general reader. 

A Practical Educator. 

\ LL biographies note the fact of success. They tell what the 
•^ ^ subjects of the sketches have accomplished. This is good as 
far as it goes. It is interesting, it supplies useful information, and 
to some extent it tends to arouse the ambition of its readers. But 
" Men of Mark" does all this, and a great deal more than this. It 
tells how these successful men have won their prizes in the great 
conflict of life. And by stating the plans which were adopted and 
the means which were employed, the subjects of these biographies 
blaze the path for others who are striving to reach positions of honor 
and of influence. 



Warning and Counsel. 



TN many cases the eminent men whose biographies appear in 
-*■ " Men of Mark" add to the statements regarding their own life 
and work, words of warning and counsel to the young. At the 
request of the editor they briefly note certain things which the 
young man must avoid, and other things which he must do, if he 
would make his way in the world. 

The True Success. 

' I THROUGHOUT this great work high ideals are constantly 
"*■ kept in view. The success to which " Men of Mark " points 
the way does not consist merely in the securing of fortune, or of 
fame, or of both combined. It ranks character as its chief asset. 
In its view honor and integrity are prime essentials. Wealth and 
position, when honorably attained, have all due regard, and achieve- 
ment is highly respected, but a sturdy, noble manhood is the chief 
distinction and the highest prize. 

The Men of Today. 

** "\ zfEN of Mark" relates to men who are now, or who recently 
have been, in active life. We owe an immense debt to 
past generations. The great men of former days are worthy of 
honor. Their biographies appear in existing works. An index to 
their names, with helpful references, will appear in " Men of Mark." 
But this great collection of biography will have to do chiefly with 
the men who are now making the history of America and thus 
shaping the destiny of the world. 



The Standard of Selection. 

TN selecting the names of those whose biographies are to appear 
•*■ in "Men of Mark," achievement and character will be kept 
constantly in view. Money cannot purchase admission to its pages 
and lack of it will not prove a bar to inclusion therein. The selec- 
tion will be considered by an Advisory Board, consisting of the fol- 
lowing named eminent men: 

EDWIN A. ALDERMAN, LL.D., 
President University of Virginia. 

GEN. HENRY V. BOYNTON, 

Chairman of Chicamaugua and Chattanooga National Military 

Park Commission. 

HON. DAVID J. BREWER, LL.D., 

Associate Justice U. S. Supreme Court 

MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., L.H.D., 

Ex-President Amherst College. 

HON. ELLIS H. ROBERTS, LL.D., 
Treasurer of the United States. 

JOSIAH STRONG, D.D., 
President Institute Social Service, Author of "Our Country." 

HON. HENRY LITCHFIELD WEST, 
Commissioner District of Columbia. 

GEN. JOHN M.WILSON, LL.D., 
Chief of Engineers U. S. A., Retired. 

HON. CARROLL D. WRIGHT, Ph.D., LL.D., 
U. S. Commissioner of Labor, President of Clark College. 

GEN. MARCUS J. WRIGHT, 
War Department, President Southern History Association. 

This Board will pass upon the merits of each individual case and 
its decision will be final. 



Complete and Accurate. 

' I ^HE facts from which these biographies are written are almost 

invariably obtained at first hand. The subjects of the sketches 

fill in elaborate question blanks which are sent to them by the editor 

of the work. In addition to a request for biographical data, these 



persons are also asked for words of suggestion and encouragement to 
their readers. With this request, as well as one for somewhat 
detailed information regarding the conditions under which child- 
hood and youth were passed, and the difficulties which have been 
encountered in the efforts to succeed in life, a considerable propor- 
tion of those who receive the blanks cheerfully comply. This gives 
to the work much of the charm and the value of autobiography. 

Its Literary Character. 

' I *HE biographies which appear in "Men of Mark" will be 
"*■ written in a most attractive manner. The Editor-in-Chief, 
Merrill E. Gates, LL.D., L.H.D., formerly president of Amherst 
College, and now, as for many years, Secretary of the United States 
Board of Indian Commissioners, is well known in the field of letters, 
and he is assisted by a corps of experienced and thoroughly qualified 
biographical writers. 

Chapters by Eminent Authors. 

17* ACH volume of " Men of Mark in America" will contain one 
^~^ or more important chapters by some of our most distinguished 
writers. For the first volume Dr. Edward Everett Hale has written 
on "American Ideals," and Dr. Hamilton W. Mabie on "Ideals 
of American Literature." In the following volumes other subjects 
of general interest will be treated from the ideal viewpoint by men 
who are widely and favorably known in their respective fields of 
learning. 

High - Class Illus tra tio ns. 

' I ^HIS great biographical work will be finely illustrated with por- 
-*■ traits of distinguished men. To a considerable extent a double 
system of portraiture will be adopted. There will be a full page 
portrait which will show the full face, and in addition thereto a 
profile portrait will be vignetted in the text. The portraits will be 
photogravures, steels, or etchings, and will be executed by artists of 
national reputation. 

Specimens of Chirography. 

TN addition to portraits we expect to show the autographs of the 

distinguished subjects of the biographies, and also to give a 

specimen of the ordinary handwriting apart from the signature. 

This feature will be of general interest and to the large number of 



people who regard the style of penmanship as an index of character 
it will be of real value. 

The National Portrait Gallery. 

r TPON the completion of the ten volumes of the work in which 
they will appear in connection with the text the portraits will 
be gathered in a separate volume in which they will be alphabeti- 
cally arranged. This will form a great national portrait gallery, 
and will be supplied free of cost to all subscribers to the work. It 
is believed that this is the first effort ever made to collect in a single 
volume the portraits of our nation's most distinguished living men. 

Its Outward Appearance. 

** \/f EN of Mark" will combine beauty with utility. The 
"'- -■■ type will be clear, the paper will be of a high grade, and 
the presswork will be of the best. The binding will be handsome 
and durable. In every respect the exterior of the work will har- 
monize with the character of its contents. 

An Elaborate and Costly Work. 

' I ^HIS national series of biographies will be published in ten octavo 
■*• volumes of from five to six hundred pages each, to which will 
be added the special portrait volume already noted. The publica- 
tion of this work involves an enormous amount of labor and a 
financial outlay running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
No pains or expense will be spared to make it the standard biographi- 
cal work of the time. 

Moderate Price to Purchasers. 

'TpHE publishers desire to make this work as widely useful as 
-*■ possible, and are especially anxious to place it within the 
reach of ambitious young people to whom it will be an invaluable 
aid in their struggle for success in life. Therefore, notwithstanding 
the great expense involved in the production of "Men of Mark in 
America," the price to subscribers will be very moderate. 

Commendations. 

npHE plans and purposes of the publishers of " Men of Mark" 

■*■ have been commended by a large number of our leading men. 

Among the many who have furnished data from which to write 

their biographies we name Justices Brewer, Brown, and Holmes of 



the United States Supreme Court; Secretaries Hay, Shaw, and Taft 
of the President's Cabinet; Senators Fairbanks, Hoar, and Morgan; 
Representatives Cannon, Littlefield, and Williams; Generals Miles, 
Chaffee, and Corbin; Admiral Dewey, and Rear Admirals Schley, 
Cromwell, and Walker. 

A Larger Advisory Board. 

'TpHE first volume of "Men of Mark in America" is now in the 
-■- hands of the printers. The biographies of which it is com- 
posed represent the leading residents of Washington, together with 
the more prominent of the men whose homes are elsewhere but who 
are leaders in national affairs and are also closely identified with the 
interests of the capital city. In the following volumes all parts of 
the country will be represented. And in order that this representation 
may be complete a larger Advisory Board is being formed. In 
addition to the eminent men already named in connection with the 
first volume 

FELIX ADLER, Ph.D., 
President Society for Ethical Culture, New York; 

FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D., 

Founder and President United Society of Christian Endeavor; 

DAVID STARR JORDAN, LL.D., 
President Leland Stanford, Jr., University; 

CHARLES D. McIVER, L.H.D., 

President Greensboro (North Carolina) Female College; 

WILLIAM J. NORTHEN, LL.D., 

Ex-Governor of Georgia; 

WILLIAM H. PAYNE, LL.D., 
Of the University of Michigan; 

WILLIAM L. PRATHER, LL.D., 
President University of Texas; 

OSCAR S. STRAUS, LL.D., L.H.D., 

Ex-United States Minister to Turkey; 

CHARLES F. THWING, D.D., LL.D., 

President Western Reserve University; 

GEN. JOSEPH WHEELER, LL.D., 
Of Alabama; 

have consented to serve in the same capacity on the remainder of the 
work. It is expected to add to this list until about thirty members 
for the board have been obtained. 



State Series of ''Men of Mark.'' 

TN addition to the great national work which has been described, 
the publishers will issue elaborate series of biographical cyclo- 
pedias for the various states. Except that in the works for the 
smaller states the portraits which have been printed with the text 
will be collected in a handsome portfolio instead of in a supple- 
mentary volume, each of these state works will be conducted upon 
the same general plan as the national series. The number of 
volumes for any given state will depend upon the number of its 
eminent men, but in every case it will be sufficient to permit of the 
generous recognition of all who are fairly entitled to representation 
in such a work. 

Additional information regarding either the national or the 
state series will be promptly forwarded upon application to the 
publishers. JOHNSON- WYNNE COMPANY. 

Washington, D. C, 1904. 



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